I’ll state right off — I ripped this right off of Wired’s website. (Sorry guys!) But it does make for good speculation. Is it for real? I don’t know. I’ll leave it to you, Dear Reader, to ponder it. Obviously the writer of the piece seems disappointed. But to tell you the truth, I don’t care. If this is the gPhone, what is important is that Google would be doing it.
Linky.

3, yes that is the name of the company, has released a candy bar style mobile Skype phone. Price is $179, which I assume is AUD currency. The same phone is also being released in the UK market as well. The Australian offer also includes 4000 min/mo of use. Unfortenately it does not have the Skype-in/out features turned on.

Linky.

Boingo Wireless Inc., the world’s leading wholesale network aggregator and operator of neutral-host WiFi networks, today announces the signing of a roaming agreement with Golden Telecom (NASDAQ: GLDN) — the leading provider of integrated communication and Internet services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Recently, the Golden WiFi network in Moscow, officially recognized as the world largest metropolitan WiFi network, has been added to the Boingo® Roaming System. (from CNN)

I want to follow up on my esteemed colleagues observation; Is Google becoming the Third Pipe? But I wish to also diverge a little bit. I expounded the core of it in a comment:

But here is the threat that Google presents to the entire industry. ‘Presence’, Balmer coined it. I’ll run with that but I am going to put a twist on it — “Ubiquitous Presence”. Once Google has a foothold in the wireless space their scheme is complete.

Well what is it? Why total domination. The ability of a Google consumer to go from PC, to PDA, to cellphone and have access to the same content across all platforms within the limitations of the platform itself. Once they have achieved that capability they have won. No carrier will be able to say ‘no’ so they will pay the piper. Even Microsoft will have to bow to them. (Fact for M$ the time RIGHT NOW is similar to their blindness to the Browser 15 years ago.)

Now think about that for a moment and consider the applications that Google already has:

• Google Search
• Google Maps
• Google Talk
• Google Mail
• Google Reader
• Google Calendar
• Google Docs

With more on the way. They are rapidly becoming the Desktop Experience.

Finally I noted this:

I could very easily see a scenario where Google turns to the whole telecom industry and says — “open your systems. If you don’t we will either buy one of you or displace all of you since we now own a chunk of the 700mhz spectrum. Your choice. Who would like to go first?” At that point the carriers will know they have been had.

Will Google care? Well yes and no. Were Google to end up with a national 700mhz band they may not. But would care that no carrier be left behind for fear of losing the opportunity for pass thru revenue. It is in Google’s interest to see that the Layer 1-4 providers succeed. As it is right now the telecom industry sees Google as the Lamprey attached to the Fish. But by say 2010 that role will be reversed. No transport provider who wishes to survive will do so without Google’s agreement. The Ubiquitous Presence factor will be too great to ignore.

Remember the Eggo Waffle commerical? — “I want my Eggo!!” Well that’s Google, their gameplan and their customer base. Unstoppable.

Perhaps Comcast’s Brian Roberts, AT&T’s Randall Stephenson and Verizon’s Ivan Seidenburg should spend next years Labor Day holiday at Burning Man if they really want to understand their new competition. I doubt this is where Google management got so scary smart, but they have all attended. In channeling the triumvirate of Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt I am beginning to believe that Google is on the verge of becoming a worldwide third pipe to the internet with “triple play” bundled for the taking. I do not believe that Google deliberately set out to compete with the telco / cable duopoly. They are, however, undergoing an organic evolution that may very well end with a fully open Google pipe that will be very disruptive to the duopoly’s current business models.

Understanding Google’s business model is simple, but not intuitive to the average duopoly MBA. They are more like a 1960’s broadcast network than a telco, cable operator or software company. Their revenue comes from advertising and they create product and service to showcase advertising. The more new product or services they can create, the more advertising they can sell. This is where they diverge form the old broadcast model . Google is growing by creating more ad space, with more targeted audiences, not by creating scarcity and charging an ever increasing price like ABC, NBC and CBS.

How does competing with the duopoly figure into this? Google has long been under assault from the duopoly for getting rich while taking a “free ride” on the duopoly infrastructure. Google has bought and lit up dark fiber and has been aggressively building data centers to insure efficient back haul delivery of their content. I believe that this began as a purely defensive measure, but the fact is that this infrastructure is now in place and it gives them an advantage.

Consider a quote from a recent interview with AT&T’s chairman:

While Google was a late entrant to the VOIP business with Google Talk, it is the most internally back haul capable of any company currently offering a free voice service, and they have added SIP support, making it an open system. When used in conjunction with gmail and the Google productivity suite, they have the most powerful single online desktop of any free service. How does this effect the duopoly? If Google integrates their newly acquired Grand Central service, they will have a connection to the PSTN. Grand Central a very rich feature product that integrates well with services outside of Google while accessing the old dial tone network giving the user a free, lifetime PSTN phone number. With the projected offering of the g-phone as an open platform available to any wireless operator, Google will have a presence in every sector of the voice market. Worth noting, voice is currently the most profitable section of the duopoly’s business.

Google has huge ad space growth in indexing and hosting video, but the quality has been poor. This is also changing rapidly. Again they are building infrastructure to deliver it efficiently. A higher quality h.264 codec is coming to the flash player that is the platform of choice for Google’s you tube. Quality will quite good in the near future.

Then, Google will be bidding on 700 MHz spectrum. I believe again that this is largely a defensive act. Google needs to insure last mile connectivity to fixed devices, and access to mobile devices. Even if they are not the winner of the auction, auction rules guarantee that they will have open access. Then, if no wireless carrier has adopted the g-phone platform it will be deployed on an open 700MHz pipe.

So, Google is building a “triple play” offering? Yes. Intentionally? No - rather largely by coincidence. Mostly free for the taking. You can get it if you don’t mind a few ads and you are paying for a big enough pipe to use it. If the duopoly won’t provide the pipe at a fair price, then Google will - to sell their ad space and grow profits. Maybe it’s a actually good thing that the duopoly keeps beating up on them. C’mon duopoly, wake up and compete. Google is likely to misbehave if they don’t have some good competition.

Well I said that Google would launch into to 3G space as soon as the phone opened up to third party development. But I guess I can’t even keep up with the changes. Read This.

Update:

Guess the first question is why Verizon? The answer is culture. The fGTE component of Verizon had a very strong development arm that was carried into the Verizon gameplan. They have a development arm in India as well so they can crank code nearly round the clock. Verizon was able to develop software for FIOS settop boxes than even the makers of the hardware didn’t think possible and couldn’t by the way. The cross development Geekiness would just ooze with both firms collaborating.

But why not AT&T? They’re number #1 right? Well part of it is the Geek factor above. But consider, a phone is a phone is a phone. So if you needed to get going fast you need to partner with innovators. Sorry but that is not AT&T as it stands today. So you go with #2, who by the way stole 1.6m customers from the other carriers. (Yes stole, with a market that is 95% saturated, you only gain marketshare by stealing customers away from somebody else.) You bring in Nokia and Samsung as well. You put the developers in a room, lock the door and slide the pizzas in every once in a while and see what comes out.

Finally, Verizon has very up to date billing system that can accommodate third party charges quite well. A critical piece for Google if they want to carry components of their click thru model into the mobile phone arena. Google will of course wish to pursue premium text content. But I don’t think they will abandon totally their adsense revenue as well.

Yes Dear Reader, a lot of changes for the cellular industy for 2008 are on their way!

Qwest’s quarterly results show broadband growth slowing, and they are facing growing competition in many markets. Qwest management just may “get it” announcing a major upgrade to their infrastructure - for at least a few customers. Is this by itself enough cure the slowdown? Probably not.

“As we look to the future we’re convinced that increased bandwidth to our customers is critical for long term success,” insists Mueller (obvious statement of the week). “We’re happy to announce that our board has approved the expansion of our fiber to the node plan.”

The CEO notes they’ll spend between $70-100 million on FTTN this year and another $200 million next year. “We really believe that this is the responsible way to get our bandwidth to our customers,” insists Mueller. Considering Qwest serves around 10 million customers, it’s responsible, but not particularly ambitious. (from Broadband reports)

We reported  here previously that Sprint was going to unlock. Well it looks like Verizon Wireless seeing the handwriting on the wall for their turn at bat decided to do likewise. So that puts cellular provider #2 & #3 on the unlock bandwagon. Since both carriers lost in their two largest service markets it would follow they will make these provisions nationwide for simplicity of operation. AT&T won’t be far far behind.

Ahhh. Remember this post as well?  With the phones opening up, and devices like the S60 supporting third party programming; it is quite possible that Google could make a move in the current cellular space. All without having to wait for newer technologies.

The landscape in the cellular market is going to have a lot of changes in 2008.

Linky.

Eye-Fi has created a SD card for use in cameras so that you can transfer your pics without dealing with the USB cable. Smallest WiFi adapter I have seen. Anybody know a smaller one on the market?

Eye-Fi.

Linky.

US wireless technology manufacturer Motorola is donating equipment for its Canopy wireless broadband solution to the city of Garanhuns in Pernambuco state on Brazil’s northeast coast, news service Bureau de Prensa reported.

The Garanhuns digital city project is one of the initiatives of the communications ministry’s digital inclusion program due to be launched on December 20.

The technology, which is based on the WiMax 802.16e standard and operates in the 3.5GHz band, is expected to help improve access to public services in the city. Access will be available from libraries, schools, cultural centers, clinics and the buildings of a range of public entities.

An interesting idea. Sponsor the gear. Then maybe get a service agreement? It will be interesting to see how this plays out for Motorola.

Linky.